Why golf is taking another swing at 'The Skins Game'

Look, let’s just get this out there right now: Golf, as a sport and an endeavor, is just weird as hell.

Unlike pretty much any other sport except maybe tennis, its fans are often active amateur players of the game. (No Ohio State or Chiefs fans are suiting up in full pads and knocking helmets … fortunately.) And unlike any other sport at all, golf metamorphosizes from its traditional four-day tournaments into an incredible range of semi-connected variants: match play, no-cut stroke play, indoor simulator golf … and, of course, “The Skins Game.”

If you’re below, say, 35 years old, “The Skins Game” sounds like some kind of TikTok euphemism. (It still may be, be careful with your searches.) But trust me, your father and grandfather used to love the Skins Game, a Thanksgiving golf tradition pitting four of the game’s best against one another in a match play hit-and-giggle.

In its original incarnation, the Skins Game featured Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player yukking it up in Scottsdale, Arizona. They played for a total purse of $360,000, with each hole — or “skin” — valued at a different amount, with the winner of the hole claiming the “skin.”

Back then — and for the 25 or so years that followed — the Skins Game was a one-off event, a pleasant departure from the usual routine of traditional four-day cut-line tournaments. But it ended suddenly in 2008 with K.J. Choi edging Stephen Ames for the win.

Today, the departure is the mainstream. Yes, the traditional four-day cut-line tournaments still form the backbone of the golf year. But those tournaments in themselves aren’t enough to keep a widely diffuse and distracted public engaged in the game — in part because you don’t have a 21st-century equivalent to Nicklaus, Palmer, Player and Watson teeing it up every week.

The original Skins Game featured (L-R) Tom Watson, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer vying for a $360,000 purse. (Photo by Carl Iwasaki /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

(Carl Iwasaki via Getty Images)

Golf these days encompasses multiple tours, as well as a range of documentaries, creator-based social media content, made-for-YouTube tournaments, the TGL indoor golf league and one-off events like the Skins Game and annual installments of the Skins-esque “The Match” — now rebranded as “The Golf Channel Games,” a skills competition including Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.

In an environment — and a time of year — when football rules, golf has to swerve. Hence the array of new formats, each an attempt to bring new perspectives and new eyeballs to the sport.

And now, after a 17-year hiatus, the Skins Game is back, this time with a $4 million purse, where Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Xander Schauffele and Keegan Bradley will be shaking off the turkey and looking to card a few birdies at Panther National in South Florida. The Skins Game tees off Friday morning at 9 a.m. Eastern on Prime Video — perfect for your post-Thanksgiving sweet rolls and Black Friday strategizing.

“We’re always looking at ways of making the game more compelling, and for us, it’s fun as well in a competitive environment,” Fleetwood said recently. “Our job every day, and for the majority of the time, is still playing all these traditional golf events, these historical events that mean so much to us. … These are just an opportunity to do something different and enjoy it as well.”

Knowledgeable golf fans will look at the roster of players and note that there’s a significant 2025 Ryder Cup element running through the foursome. There’s Fleetwood, who scored more points than any player on either side of the tumultuous September event at Bethpage; Lowry, who closed out the Americans with his putt on Sunday; Schauffele, who co-led the Americans with three points; and, of course, Bradley, who captained the United States team through its disastrous start and near-miracle finish.

“Keegan probably feels like he owes me and Tommy one or two,” Lowry joked, “so I am sure he’s going to be working hard.”

“I won’t have a walkie-talkie in my hand in Friday,” Bradley replied. “I’ll have a golf club, which is my chance to get back at these two maniacs.”

“I won’t have 50,000 New Yorkers in my ear either,” Lowry shot back.

The gentle ribbing is the heart of what will make the Skins Game work. Not a single person on earth who doesn’t have money on the outcome is invested in who actually wins the Skins Game. (Player won the first one. He might be the only person who remembers that.) The Skins Game will live or die based on personality, not game play. Fortunately for this tournament, Lowry is one of the elite talkers in golf; Schauffele and Fleetwood have some game; and everyone is waiting to see whether Bradley will crack under the weight of all the incoming Bethpage jokes.

Will the Skins Game revolutionize golf? Of course not. But it keeps the game on TV during a quiet period, provides a fine lead-in for the NFL on Prime, and makes for an excellent backdrop while you assemble Friday’s first sandwich of leftovers. As growing-the-game opportunities go, it’s a solid opportunity.

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